Pro-life groups in Europe are facing increasing censorship. Last week, a Scottish university banned a pro-life students from forming an official club, claiming it would be “a platform to harass students,” and France criminalized pro-life websites.

University of Strathclyde Denies Pro-Life Club

The University of Strathclyde’s Student’s Association (USSA) in Scotland has placed a ban on all “anti-choice” clubs, according to Monday a Facebook post from Strathclyde Life Action, a group of pro-life students at the university.

The ban will prevent groups like Strathclyde Life Action from becoming an official club or obtaining funding for events, though the group says they’re not demanding funding. “We only want a platform where we can stand up for what we believe.”

According to a report by The Herald, a Scottish newspaper, the USSA’s justification for the ban is that “anti-choice groups actively use intimidation and fear tactics to harass people entering abortion clinics.”

The USSA also claimed that “allowing an anti-choice group to form would be a barrier to freedom, equality and body autonomy for those with uteruses on campus,” would give pro-life students a “platform to harass students,” and would “violate their safe space.”

Strathclyde Life Action had a different take on the policy, saying that they “did not have any aims which denied that women are free to the liberties of choice. Rather, we sought to educate students about the medical and ethical discussion which surrounds end of life issues.”

“The policy itself is an assault on the right to freedom of expression,” the group wrote on Facebook.

This is Silly

The USSA’s ban was even criticized by pro-choice writer Charlie Peters at the British online magazine spiked, who said that all students should have the freedom to voice their views and debate on campus. Peters also took issue with the USSA’s allegation that permitting a pro-life group on campus would violate the safe space of pro-choice students.

“This is silly,” Peters writes. “When I encounter a view I disagree with, no matter how shocking or offensive it might be, I rarely find myself intimidated by it, or afraid of those expressing it.”

Strathclyde Life Action claims that the USSA has violated the European Convention of Human Rights and Scotland’s Further and Higher Education Act, and that they are going to protest the policy.

“We will be organising events in the future to campaign against this decision, and — if it is not resolved — further external action will be taken,” the group posted on Facebook.

The Stream wrote Strathclyde Life Action for further comment, but has not received a response.

France Passes Bill Aimed at Silencing Pro-Life Websites

The lower house of the French parliament passed the “digital interference” bill last week, LifeSite News reported. The bill criminalizes French websites that “deliberately mislead, intimidate and/or exert psychological or moral pressure to discourage recourse to abortion.” The law includes penalties of up to two years in prison and fines of up to 30,000 euros.

Dr. Joseph Meaney of Human for Life International told LifeSite that “we are in the realm of unrestricted pro-abortion propaganda and the most stringent censorship of free speech if it contradicts the view that abortion is a wonderful solution to crisis pregnancies.” He added, however, that the bill would “probably be reversed by judicial redress.”

This bill isn’t the first example in recent weeks of France has cracking down on free speech. Just last month France’s State Council upheld a ban on an award-winning video entitled “Dear Future Mom.” The video features smiling children and young adults with Down syndrome talking about all the achievements someone with Down syndrome can accomplish.

The State Council upheld the ban on the video because seeing happy people with Down syndrome was “likely to disturb the conscience of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.” The video is not allowed to be played on French television.